More Than Just Ice Cream
By Julian Plovnik
Back in June of 2020, I was working for a Boston-based tech company in the food space. When news first broke of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the employees of the company immediately began to press our executive team about what statement we would be making as a company. When a week or so went by and no progress had been made, a co-worker of mine asked our CEO during an all-company meeting why there had been no statement. Her response was simple, yet completely and utterly disappointing: “we do not want to be a political organization, and our donation actions have to match up with our brand identity.”
I was heartbroken. I had dedicated years to helping build up this company, only to find that my leadership team viewed affronts on human rights as a “political issue”. Unfortunately, responses like theirs were not uncommon last summer. When the boom of Black Lives Matter protests began in June 2020, it seemed as though every company in the country began to scramble to figure out whether or not they should put out a response. From large CPG conglomerates to local mom & pop shops, businesses began to cross into that uncomfortable territory of having to be more than just a product or service. While many companies failed to do so properly (looking at you Facebook and Quaker Oats), one stood out across national headlines as being among “the most detailed and powerful” to come from a corporate social media account: good old Ben & Jerry’s.
In their 2020 article, “How Ben & Jerry’s Perfected the Delicate Recipe for Corporate Activism”, authors Jordyn Holman and Thomas Buckley explored Ben & Jerry’s messaging during the movement, and what made them stand out amongst the rest. They attribute a couple factors to the success, such as vocal support for a national task force aimed at drafting legislation to end racial violence, but what stood out to me as the most important aspect, and I think the authors would agree, is that this was not uncharted territory for Ben & Jerry’s. Ever since the founding of the company in 1978, founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield have made sure that activism stands strong as a core pillar of the brand’s identity. From criminal justice reform to same-sex marriage, Ben & Jerry’s has never shied away from being “political”.
And that just might be the key to it all; it becomes blatantly obvious to consumers when a company is acting outside of their predetermined mission statement and brand pillars. For companies like McDonalds, who came under fire after posting a BLM statement despite denying hundreds of thousands of Black workers access to paid sick and family leave during the pandemic, the lack of time, thought, and energy spent on “political” issues becomes blaringly apparent when they act out of pressure by society and their consumer base. This is why it is direly important for companies to make social responsibility and activism a core piece of their overall strategy from the get go. This means hiring a leader of D&I, investing in charitable committees, and not viewing standing up for human rights as a polarizing, “political act”. At the end of the day, if you employ and serve people, you must also be active in protecting the rights of those people; of ALL people. That’s what Ben & Jerry’s has always done, and along with making the best ice cream in the world, that’s what they’ll continue to do.
